//------------------------------// // Who Would You Be? // Story: From Whence We Fell // by iAmSiNnEr //------------------------------// From Whence We Fell By iAmSiNnEr Who Would You Be? Attempt One Hundred and Sixty-Seven. By now, they had discovered the location of where the two mares were when they entered their world. They had also ascertained the correct words to say to prevent said mares from blasting them in the face from the start or leaving their world. Only thing to do now was to try again. Midnight didn’t even bother looking at the golem as time reset yet again, immediately teleporting away to meet the rest of the alicorns twenty metres away from the two mares. Ten metres, they’d panic and leave. Five, they’d blast them in the face with magic. Twenty was enough for them to stop and think as they raised their hooves in surrender. Why didn’t they just kill the two mares? Well, they did attempt that. Once. They had seen the spell warp and die, beginning to destroy their world. They didn’t try that again. The dark alicorns didn’t address each other. They didn’t need to. They already knew what would happen, and what they would need to do. They only hoped they would get it right this time. Get the alicorn and the unicorn’s guard down, knock them out, disable the spell then kill the two. Simple enough, right? Except the last thirty-seven times they reached this point they had said something wrong or the other, screwing their universe over. They had tried a straight concussion spell. But the two of them had their guards up, immediately responding with shields and disabling their spells, disappearing into the portal. And then their world had crumbled then. Midnight didn’t understand how the golem kept repeating the same time loop again and again, but she was grateful the golem had the power to. For if it hadn’t, they’d have been in oblivion by now. You look- “You look like me,” The alicorn, whose name they had learned to actually be Twilight Sparkle, spoke as she stared at Midnight. Twilight’s horn lit. “I thought nothing lived here.” “You thought wrong,” Daybreaker said flatly. “We live here. And we would appreciate it if you didn’t destroy our universe.” So far, so good. Daybreaker’s words caused Twilight and the unicorn, Starlight Glimmer, to hesitate. “Destroy your universe?” Starlight spoke. “B-but isn’t this-” “If you return to your time, you doom ours,” Nightmare Moon cut across her at the correct section. “We could not find the fixed point. Whatever you changed did not change our world directly - it simply sent ripples across space and time and affected our timeline. So now your timeline and our timeline are linked. You leave, you kill us all.” “That wouldn’t be much of a loss-” Starlight began. “Starlight,” Twilight always said the same thing. “We should try to help them. This is their timeline, after all. As the Princess of Friendship, I can’t stand by while I watch an entire world die.” “What if they’re lying?” Starlight questioned her. “We could be,” Midnight agreed. “But if we were, why wouldn’t we just knock you out? Destroy you utterly? It’s because it didn’t work. And we have to resort to bargaining with you to let our world live. It’s the only world we know.” This was where they had lost the last time.  Midnight was hoping she said the correct words. The last time, Twilight and Starlight had panicked, before leaving their world to crumble into dust. She heaved a sigh as ten seconds passed and the two didn’t leave. “You’re Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said, looking at Nightmare. “And I’m guessing that’s Princess Celestia’s fallen form.” Midnight tensed. This was the furthest they had gone. She hoped they didn’t mess it up. “Correct. I am Daybreaker, Bringer of the Scorching Flames, Queen of the Ruined Lands.” “And you…are Cadance’s,” Twilight said as she looked at Heartbreaker. “Your coat’s different, but your mane’s the exact same.” “Mhm. Heartbreaker, love.” Twilight frowned as she finally turned to Midnight. “And you…” “Midnight Sparkle,” Midnight said after a pause. “Alicorn of Magic, Bearer of the Stars.” “W-what happened to us?” Twilight asked hesitantly. “W-what made us fall?” Midnight considered her question. “The way this world is, I suppose. And maybe when our parents died,” she answered, leaving out that she had killed them herself. “I don’t suppose your world is like this.” Twilight shook her head. “It’s vibrant. Full of life. Not…whatever this wasteland is. I don’t even understand myself how me not making friends and meeting my friends led to this.” “I don’t think that caused this,” Starlight said, examining the half-ripped scroll. “I saw the other worlds. Equestria was mostly intact. No, us ripping the scroll most likely sent ripples across space and time, like they said. It reached into another world, and then altered their time into this.” Midnight’s head throbbed. Flashes of visions. They were running out of time. Twilight’s head whipped to look at Starlight. “The alternate universe theory is real?” “I believe so,” Starlight said slowly. “No villain that you defeated before could have done this. This is something entirely different—” Different. Midnight cried out, and her world dissolved once more. She felt her wings beside her as she lay in a fluffy bed. “Love?” a voice called out.  Midnight frowned. Was it just her, or did it sound like a…kinder Nightmare? “It’s time to wake,” the voice chided as she felt the covers across her body pull away, magic levitating them up. “We have to meet the Solar Empire’s delegation. My sister and her daughter will be terribly cross if we’re late again, Twilight.” “We’re different,” Midnight grumbled, then paused. It was the first time she had spoke in these visions. She rolled her tongue, but let her words flow out naturally. “We’re the rulers of the Lunar Empire! They’re more active in the day, and us, the night!” A flowing mane ticked her chin as the owner of the voice lowered herself into Midnight’s vision. “Come on, love,” Midnight frowned. This wasn’t Nightmare. It was some parody of her. The blue alicorn looked at her with an amused smile. “I know you hate bandying words with the Solar Empire’s politicians, but I promise this time it’s entirely just a simple visit from my sister and her daughter.” Luna. The name surfaced from somewhere. Midnight looked longingly at Luna, her body seemingly wishing to embrace her for some reason. “It’s time to wake-” “Wake up, Midnight,” Nightmare’s cold voice cut into her ears. “Wake up.” Midnight stirred. Her mind felt fuzzy.  For some reason, the vision she had just seen was different from the earlier ones. Those had seemed intrusive, false, wrong. This one seemed like it actually belonged in her memory. “What can we do to help?” Twilight stepped forward. Their guard was lowered. Their plan should have started. But for some reason, Midnight failed to cast the spell. Or rather, she didn’t want to. The vision she had just saw…she had been happy to see Nigh- Luna. And the world had been much nicer than theirs.  She saw the other three dark alicorns casting her glances. Why hadn’t she cast the knock out spell yet? “Could you reverse your spell?” Midnight croaked out, and the other three looked at her like she was insane. “If you won’t do it, Sparkle,” Daybreaker snarled. “I will—” Midnight’s bolt of magic slammed into her face, causing her to flail backward and sprawl onto the ground. She got to work, leaping onto her hooves, her magic already flowing into the air as tendrils of light wrapped around Daybreaker, restraining her, gagging her, before wrapping around her horn several times to prevent Daybreaker from casting any spells. Daybreaker crumpled onto the ground, unable to move or speak. The hate in her eyes said it all. But their world was still intact, along with Twilight and Starlight still there. So, Midnight reasoned, she had done something right. “W-what was that?” Twilight shrieked. “What-” “She attempted to knock you out,” Nightmare Moon said with distaste. “It was our plan to save our universe. But it seems Midnight has changed the plan without telling us. But since our world is still intact…it seems the plan has merit.” Heartbreaker didn’t do anything, simply observed her. “I-I saw a vision,” Midnight said slowly. “Of another life. One that felt…right.” “Your actual world,” Starlight supplied. “The one you actually lived.” Twilight looked at the scroll. “We have to repair this.” “But how?” Starlight asked her. “It’s ancient parchment.” “Like this,” Heartbreaker’s emotionless voice said as her magic flowed into the tear, sealing it up, repairing it. The edges glowed pink, and then it looked good as…well, not new, but how it was supposed to look. “All you had to do was put a little love into it.” An awkward silence. “I am still the Alicorn of Love,” Heartbreaker shrugged. “Don’t mind me.” All of them stared at the repaired parchment. “Well,” Twilight said softly. “I don’t know if it’ll help. But maybe when we return this time…the repaired parchment will repair your world too.” Daybreaker was now shouting at them through her magical gag, and they all ignored her muffled shouts. “We’re trusting you,” The words sounded wrong in Midnight’s mouth, but in her heart…she knew it was the right thing to say. “The fate of our world is on your hooves now.” A nod from both Twilight and Starlight. “Good luck.” Nightmare Moon said quietly, then turned to trot away. Midnight followed her, trotting away, leaving Heartbreaker and Daybreaker behind. They stopped at the same time to look back. Twilight and Starlight were hugging, and then they were sucked up by the portal. Midnight waited for the golem to speak. She didn’t hear anything in the air. She released Daybreaker’s bonds, then sat down where she was, along with Nightmare, who let her lean her head on her shoulder. “You have doomed us all, Sparkle,” Daybreaker growled as she stomped over. “Our world’s dead. You let them leave.” Midnight didn’t answer. Why had she let them leave? Why? Now that she looked back, what she had done was illogical.  But as she leaned against Nightmare, it seemed…right. Daybreaker glared at her for a minute, before relenting. “I’m going to return to Spike. If we’re all dying soon, I’m dying with the lizard. At least he’s better company.” Her horn lit to teleport, but Nightmare Moon raised a hoof to stop her, if only for a moment. “I’ll see you again, Sister,” Nightmare sounded resigned. “Whether it’d be our dreams or the eternal night.” Daybreaker snorted, then teleported away. Already, as the portal dissolved, they could see their world dusting away. Was it just her, or was the sky lightening as the sun and moon started flaking? Midnight looked at her hoof. It was slowly dissolving into dust, as were the rest of her. She had made the wrong decision. And they were all going to die. The golem wasn’t restarting time this time. She didn’t know why. She leaned onto Nightmare again. “What do you think happens?” she asked softly. “After death?” “I don’t know, Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon said heavily. “We rolled the dice. The dice rolled up into death for us. Our world is gone. And we’re going with it.” “It was…a good memory for the vision,” Midnight murmured. “Maybe they tricked me. Who knows? But at least…they gave me something nice to go out with. The look of love in your eyes.” Nightmare looked at her silently. “It was worth it, then,” she said finally. “Besides, looking at those two…I feel a little better about dying. We’re abominations. Darkened and fallen alicorns. What was the point of us?” “Maybe we were always destined to meet,” she looked up at Nightmare. “To have our final moments together.” “Hmph.” Nightmare glared at her, before her eyes softened. “I’m glad we did meet, Sparkle.” “I wish…I just wish we had more time. To fight. To bicker. To destroy each other utterly,” Midnight smirked. “Maybe…” “Maybe we could not spend our last moments talking,” Nightmare Moon said. “Shut up.” Then Nightmare Moon kissed Midnight Sparkle. Midnight could feel her insides melting. Literally and figuratively. Her body was going numb, and her eyes registered her body disappearing.  Was this…was this what death felt like? It wasn’t painful. It wasn’t horrible. The kiss actually made it— And all went white.