//------------------------------// // God of the Void // Story: The Immortal Dream // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// A golden light hung on the horizon like an upside-down sunrise, the stars of the lifestream fading as they were overwhelmed by the colors of dawn. My eyes stung, and I tried to look away, but the light moved with me, as if it came not from a point in the distance, but the inside of my retinas. The fallen chunk of crystal from the bridge that I sat on wobbled, turbulence striking the river's normally mirrorlike surface. The new cracks that riddled the Laughter tree burned with light, and then sprayed it like jets from a pressurized fountain as the surface of the river rose in a bulge... and then that bulge gave way, rippling outward in a wave. And as it crashed back down around the base of the tree, left in its wake was the source of all light. It was a wave frozen mid-crest, golden energy streaming up its wall and frothing at the apex, a radiant film that seemed to push back reality with a quality that didn't belong in this world. And within the wave was a core of even brighter light, backed by a spinning halo and more runes that seemed to change like a fractal, like white clouds in an alien yellow sky. I thought I could make out a quadruped somewhere within that core, but it was like looking at the sun, only I somehow had yet to go blind. "Unnrus-kaeljos," I whispered. "Halcyon," the god of the deep replied, its mighty voice ending as a whisper after echoing across dimensions. "You know my name," I said, my fur standing on end. "Have-" The light wave stood still, light rushing up its wall and peaking without crashing back down. "...This world abhors my presence. My time here is limited, especially so close to the heart of the enemy. So let us skip the formalities we have already done before. What boon do you ask of me?" "What... boon?" My head spun, still racing to catch up. "You mean like when I asked you to take Procyon away?" "Do you desire power?" Unnrus-kaeljos asked. "Or perhaps knowledge? You may even ask on behalf of your friends. But hurry. The Flames of Harmony are already aware of my presence, and only the state of this palace delays their response." "I don't... need any more power," I said, the world rushing around me. "I barely even know what to do with the power I already have. Answers would be nice, but I wasn't remotely prepared for... I mean..." "Hurry," the light wave urged. "Our time together is nearly at an end. Someone approaches." My backwards ears pressed flat against my skull. "How can I condense everything I want to ask you into a few mere seconds!? I need more time!" "...To give you that, all I require is your trust. Step into the wave." My fur stood on end. "What?" "You may ride with me as I circle the world," Unnrus-kaeljos offered. "Though it will be only a few scant moments, it is more than we have here." Halcyon? Faye said in my mid. This is a bad idea. "I know that," I responded aloud, my heart hammering. "But... this is our chance to learn everything..." "I will not force you," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "In fact, that may be the one thing I am incapable of. Or have you forgotten how you clawed things back from my realm so many times before? Were I to take you, you could escape. Of that, I am beyond certain." "I..." I wanted to go. My legs were locking up, but I needed this chance. I had all but forgotten about getting closure for my past with all the distractions that had entered my life: surviving Ironridge, saving Coda, reviving Kindness, finding Starlight and making sense of Equestria's nonsensical trains. And now, here it was: a chance to learn from the source what had happened after the avalanche, when I was split in three. The god I had reached for when I stared up at the night sky and down into the ether, the meaning of my miraculous survivals, perhaps something about my history and the reason I couldn't use my powers... Are you really so sure about this? Faye pressed. You don't know who he is, or what he's like, or... "That's why I need to find out!" Halcyon insisted, not at all concerned about speaking her thoughts aloud. "Right? When are we going to get another chance like this?" Faye squirmed. Halcyon didn't have her memories, hadn't seen Macrothesis or the visions of devastation that accompanied it. Hadn't been visited by Unnrus-kaeljos in a dream. Didn't know that Unnrus-kaeljos had been party to the destruction of Indus... Might not even know that he seemed to be Ludwig's father. She had kept those things from Halcyon because it would make it more natural for her to spy on Nanzanaya, in order to uphold their bargain with Seigetsu. And now, was that lack of knowledge about to get them into terrible danger? ...No. Of course it wasn't. That wasn't how things worked for them. Instead, it was going to get them tied up with a new obligation or contract. At the same time, she had questions for the light wave too... and it was correct that Halcyon had pulled Procyon back from the void before. Faye wasn't sure if she would have gone for it. She probably would have listened to her senses and refused. But that moment's hesitation was all it took for Halcyon to step forward. "Hallie? What are you doing!?" It was Corsica, calling from above. Halcyon looked up. Corsica was standing at the lip of the broken bridge, staring down with wide eyes at the wave of frozen light, its surface inches from Halcyon's boot. Part of the edge crumbled beneath her, and Corsica scrambled back to keep her footing as a few small chunks of crystal rained down. "I'm going to get answers!" Halcyon called back up. "I'll be right back!" And then she stuck her hoof into the light. Corsica stared as Halcyon was pulled into the wave. There was no fanfare. Nothing to mark her passing. And then, with a rush that sounded like a distant waterfall, the wave unfroze, and spread away from the tree. "Going to get answers? Hallie...?" Corsica had only been there for a second. Not even long enough to process how she had just used her talent, let alone how Generosity stepped in to shield her from the consequences. Let alone how the tree had exploded. Let alone... what? "I wish," she whispered, half in a daze, "that Halcyon would get back here, right now!" Nothing happened. She blinked, and tried again. Still nothing. No weight in the back of her mind, telling her the wish had been made. No supernatural weariness, telling her it had been consummated. No snapping feeling, like when Seigetsu countermanded her wish before it came true. Just... nothing. Corsica glanced at her flank, but her talent was still there, just where it usually was. "I wish I could find a sandwich for lunch, once I'm back on the surface," she said, wishing for something too simple to hurt much when it came true. A microscopic weight appeared in her mind, akin to putting a pebble in her pocket. She tried again to wish for Halcyon's return, and still, nothing happened. "Hallie!" Corsica called again, her voice cracking. "What did you-" The lip of the bridge crumbled again, and this time she wasn't fast enough to catch herself before she fell. Corsica tumbled, missing the fallen crystal platform and plunging into the ether. Standard Icereach safety protocol was not to go swimming in ether. Being a scientist, she had touched it plenty of times anyway, and could instantly tell that this ether was wrong as she hit the surface. Normally, ether's viscosity changed based on how much you had in one place: a small beaker of it poured more easily than water, but the river had a surface that was stable enough to stand on, like a partially-packed snow bank. And it never stuck or clung to anything. But this ether looked washed out, like the night sky over Ironridge when the city's lights were shining, and she sunk in it all the way up to her chin. And when she climbed out, sputtering, onto the roots of the crystal tree, she felt it stick in her coat, a filmy sensation that clung to her fur and wouldn't go away. From down here, draped over a crystalline root, Corsica could see the light wave receding in the far distance, a band of light on the horizon like the last traces of sunset. Halcyon was nowhere to be seen. And her talent still wasn't working. "Hallieee!" she called one more time, that one word the only thing she could say to protest this. This Tree of Harmony, one of the things they were ostensibly trying to save and restore, cracked and broken because she hadn't thought before using her talent. And that light wave... This was what Halcyon had seen after the avalanche, when she had been unconscious in the Icereach medical ward. This was what she had been chasing all those long years, what drove her to experiment on ether crystals and drag Corsica along. And now, she had... She had gotten the opportunity to answer those questions once and for all, and left Corsica behind. Again. "Come back," she whispered. "Please..." The receding light disappeared from the horizon, leaving her without a response. Soon, Rainbow Dash came searching, and carried Corsica back up to the entrance to the tree. The central chamber was less cracked than it had been, Starlight and Laughter still working to re-meld the crystals and everyone else standing in a stupor. "My friend," Corsica announced, "is an idiot." Before anyone could cut in, she dumped everything on them, how she emerged from the tree to see the light wave and Halcyon halfway reaching for it. She had no shortage of ways to lambast Halcyon's decision-making: something that appeared in apocalyptic visions, created the windigo race, and showed up after the half-destruction of a Tree of Harmony could never be good. And yet nothing she said felt good enough; everything she said was beating around the bush. Corsica had tried to patch things up after their feud in Snowport. She had offered every olive branch she could imagine, dropped the subjects she was sore about and let them remain in the past, figured Halcyon was fully committed now to an endeavor she understood, which was restoring Kindness... And now the whiplash from all of that frustration hit her all at once, like a dozen wishes coming true at exactly the same time. It hadn't been enough. Her best friend, the only constant in her life after this awful special talent turned it upside-down, had ran off to finish their inquiries on her own. And to add insult to injury, her special talent - the reason all of this had started in the first place - couldn't even do anything about it. What was the point of paying such a price for her power if that power wouldn't even work right when she needed it to help her live with the consequences? "Not to interrupt your rant," Starlight cut in, "but the tree's going to be fine. Whatever happened in Ironridge, this is different. It's roughed up, but we can fix it." "That's not the point!" Corsica snapped, fully aware she was being a baby when there were more important matters at hoof, but far beyond the point of caring. "I... She..." "Corsica," Twilight said, walking over and putting a wingtip on her shoulder. Corsica's stream of words abruptly cut off, as she fumbled for what to say next. "I've had... friends leave me out of things I really wanted to be a part of," Twilight said, keeping her voice gentle even though her mane's frazzled state betrayed that she had been panicking over the tree mere moments ago. "But I've also been that friend who ran off to go do her own thing without thought for all the ponies I should have invited. So I can tell you with certainty that Halcyon didn't mean anything by it. She probably got wrapped up in her excitement and wasn't even considering how you felt, which I know doesn't feel great but at least means you can talk through this later. And I'll help with that, if you'll have me." Corsica sighed, her fury spent. "Thanks." Twilight narrowed her eyes and straightened up. "What I'm more interested in is what she was thinking. You make it sound like she went with this Unnrus-kaeljos voluntarily. Are you certain that's what you saw? Because I saw it in a vision in my own crystal palace, and she saw that vision too! And that vision didn't exactly inspire a lot of trust in that thing." "...Maybe I just saw what I wanted to see," Corsica admitted. "But I trust my eyes. It looked like she stepped into that wave on purpose." Twilight sighed, then turned to the three flames - despite their diminished states, Generosity and Kindness had started helping to seal up cracks, as well. "Everyone? Flames of Harmony? I need to know... everything you can tell me about Unnrus-kaeljos. And maybe about Indus, Aegis and Tetra, as well. This is important." "Tell you... everything," Unnrus-kaeljos said, its voice hauntingly familiar. I was floating in a sea of endless light, yet if I tilted my head just right, it could be a sea of endless darkness as well. Feathery runes spread out on the horizon, and before me was a tear in the fabric of space, a river of stars with a rocky ceiling on the other side. A cord of light tethered Faye to that crack, and tethered me to her. I couldn't tell if I was a disembodied ghost with her in my real body, or if she was, or if both of us were ghosts and our body yet lingered in the real world. Unnrus-kaeljos floated alongside us, a runic halo orbiting its barrel, wings of runes that had swords for feathers beating up and down, sliding along that halo like keys on a key ring. Inside the halo, its body was made of light, a golden-white film that seemed to strain to contain something beneath, a protective veil separating me from the divine. "Everything," I asked. "Please." "Halcyon," Unnrus-kaeljos said, its voice reverberating throughout the blinding expanse. "And Faye. Where does trust come from?" "What kind of question is that?" Faye asked. "You're not about to make me regret letting her bring us here, are you?" "Long ago, longer than you can possibly imagine, I trusted that the world I built would endure for eternity," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "A trust that was ultimately betrayed. It was a betrayal I feel the sting of even today. Once, equinity was perfect, existing in peace and harmony and taking care of one another. They held no grudges, and did not climb on one another's backs in pursuit of superiority. But one day, they began to change. How is a creator to feel, seeing their masterwork take on a life of its own, free to scratch and dent itself in pursuit of things I never intended?" "I... have no idea," I said. "What do you mean?" "Neither did I know how to feel," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "But I was soon forced to choose." We cannot see into the light wave, Generosity explained, flickering in the tree as more cracks were sealed. Its power is diametrically opposed to ours. However, we are almost certain that what exists inside is a god of the previous world, Indus. "Unnrus-kaeljos." Twilight folded her ears. That is the name of the light wave, Generosity said. Not of the god itself. His real name was expunged from history, and the only one who might still know it is our sibling, Convergence. We were created after the war, in our world's dying hour. Both of the gods still exist, Kindness added. After they grew tired from their battle, ponykind subdued them, harnessed their power for the construction of this new world, and sealed them away. "Well, where are they?" Rainbow asked. "Back in Indus, right?" Generosity flickered. We must not speak of that, for fear that someone unworthy could find them again... as they have been found before, throughout the millennia of this world's existence. "That's happened before?" Twilight's tail flicked in agitation. "I knew the Griffon Empire and Celestia and Luna have met Tetra, but the other one, too?" Tetra is the more active of the two, but the least powerful, Generosity continued. Removed from her body, Aegis, she can do little more than speak. The other is far more formidable, never having been fully stripped of his divinity. He is also far more inscrutable. He feels genuine remorse, Kindness explained. And a deep, deep sadness. And when his shackles are slackened, he never tries to escape, even when he could overpower us. He stays in his prison of his own free will. Which is why we don't understand Unnrus-kaeljos as much as we wish we did, Generosity said. It's undeniably formed by his power, or something closely related to it. And it appears whenever we, as the arbiters of this world's laws, are suitably distracted, such as when you call upon us when wielding the Elements of Harmony, or when a large enough disruption occurs at one of our homes. We believe that from his prison, the other god's spirit leaves and travels the world within the light wave, while his body remains shackled, creating a plausible deniability - an attempt to influence the course of history without openly defying us. Remember, the laws of reality for this world you live in weren't made by a god, Kindness added. They were made by normal ponies, with the help of technology. It's our job to enforce them, including against the old gods. But skirting the line like this makes it harder for us to do that, especially when we aren't at our full strength. That's our best guess for what's happening with that light wave, Generosity finished. Twilight contemplated this, and Corsica listened silently. Rainbow chewed the inside of her cheek. "So... is he evil? This Unnrus-kaeljos guy? Or, the god you think is inside the wave?" We don't know what his intentions are, Laughter said, flickering along a crack in the ceiling. We can't see anything around him, including the conversations he has with ponies he encounters in the depths. We know that happens, though! Twilight perked up. "What is it that stops you? Do you have any better understanding of it than just 'his power'?" The flames shimmered, but didn't respond. "There was something weird about the ether around the tree, after it left," Corsica spoke up. "Like it had been corrupted somehow." His presence is on your coat, Generosity confirmed. It makes you... difficult to pick out. Twilight leaned in, curious. "Would you mind terribly if I tried to... wring some of this out of your coat, and save it to study? I have a bit of a foundation in this field, and might be able to learn something important." Corsica blinked. "What? Oh... Yeah, I do too, actually. Dunno if I mentioned it. Here, do you have, like... a basin for me to drip into...?" Better yet, Twilight had a moisture-extraction spell, which was a lot more comfortable than Corsica had anticipated - which made sense, given that it was apparently developed to help speed up showers. And with a crystal vial conjured by Starlight, they soon had a small vial of yellow-tinged ether, only lightly contaminated by pink unicorn shed. "I think I'll go down to the river and scoop up a few more of these," Twilight volunteered. "It might be diluted by now, but the more samples, the better." "What I decided," Unnrus-kaeljos said, "was that I would not begrudge equinity their desire to change, their will to create a future for themselves free from gods. Thus, after this world's creation, I spent the last of my dwindling power to create some guard rails, tools meant to guide my ponies to grow in a direction they could be proud of. And then I sealed myself away, entering a long, deep slumber in preparation for my inevitable reawakening." "Guard rails," Faye said. "You mean the windigoes." Unnrus-kaeljos nodded. "The windigoes were among them. I created three great curses to stand in the way of any who aspired to become godlike themselves, curses to test the worthiness of ponykind's entire society. With the power of love, I placed my wrath, to ensure ponies could control their passions and not be held captive by them. With the power of hope, I placed my jealousy, to tempt astray those whose dreams were impure. And with the knowledge of the truth of existence, I placed my confusion, that ponies would understand the loneliness of divinity, and see for themselves that knowing every answer does not equate to solving every problem." "So you are Ludwig's father," I said. "Do you refer to a windigo?" Unnrus-kaeljos looked curious, as much as an expressionless pony of light could manage. "I do not know those creations by name. They are not life forms as you understand them. Merely tools, created with the only power a defeated god had at his disposal. But such is not the case for ponykind. This world stirs and groans, its foundations made by mortal hooves, buckling under the weight of entropy as surely as when they were designed by a god. Last time your world fell to ruin, your kind answered by beginning to evolve. This time, can you complete that evolution, becoming something more perfect than your creator dared to dream?" "What do you mean, becoming something perfect?" I pressed. "Like a new kind of pony?" "Such is the direction of fate," Unnrus-kaeljos agreed. "Your minds and even your physiology itself has changed since those distant days when you left your old world and embarked to this new one. Such change is constant. The sarosian race is a new invention, and the changeling queen, even more so. My heartfelt desire is to see ponies grow until they can finish what was started three thousand years before the fall of Indus, and create a world with no need for gods." Faye raised an eyebrow. "And where does that leave you?" Unnrus-kaeljos turned to regard her. "In a position to empathize with your desire to disappear. With failings that crush you, even if they may have been unavoidable. The world proved to be unsafe under my stewardship once before. Better that ponies have control of their own lives, and not a great arbiter who fails to save them when they cry out for mercy." It faced the tear in space again, the crack leading back to reality. "But that is also why I did not grant your wish. Though I took the portion of your soul you call Procyon for a time, I knew from the beginning you could pull her back, once you had recovered the will to live and found a new purpose in your life. Now you possess an incredible agency, protected by the shield of the void and wielding the power to interact with that which should be forgotten. You also possess the strength to live with yourself, and rise above the desire to disappear. You have grown. In you, my goals found fruition." "Tell me about Tetra," Faye said, changing the subject. "Tetra." Unnrus-kaeljos shook its head. "My closest friend. My fellow god. We were united in our belief that only freed from the machinations of gods could the world exist forever in a peaceful, unchanging state. However, we were divided over how to respond when the ponies began to change, when they learned to grapple with complex questions and abandoned their simple ways in pursuit of ambition. As I said, I decided to see what kind of future the ponies could create for themselves. But Tetra advocated the destruction and recreation of the world as a means to reset equinity to its primal state. Eventually, our differences grew so severe that she attempted to initiate the cycle on her own. I chose to fight her, buying ponykind time to answer the questions that they had chosen to dominate their existence. For whom should they exist? For what should they strive? Were they worthy of a world not poised on the brink of disaster? Our battle proved to be the final catalyst in their search, and the world you now inhabit is built on the backs of the answers your ancestors found." My ears fell. "Now it is your turn to answer those questions," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "Are you worthy of the life I gave you a second chance to live? And what do you live it for?" "That's... something only I can decide," I said. "Isn't that the point of your story?" "You are correct." "I want to save Coda," I said with a nod. "I want to teach her how to have a normal life, and... learn that for myself, alongside her. That's my goal. Right, Faye?" Faye swallowed, then nodded. "You have learned how asking a boon of me works," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "Say the word, and I can grant you power to aid in your quest. But it will come at a price." "What do you propose?" Faye asked. "The pony you seek is no longer where you left her," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "I can take you to her, deposit you at a point where you may access the surface near to her, sparing you a long search and much travel for which you have not the time. But in return, once you have achieved your goal, I require a pledge that you will support Starlight Glimmer and walk alongside her as she finds her role in this world." "What?" I tilted my head. "Not that I don't like her, but why?" "In order to evolve, ponies will require all the time I can buy them," Unnrus-kaeljos explained. "This world their ancestors built frays at its foundations, and much of that revolves around her. The Flames of Harmony were not meant to assume mortal forms, and the instability of her mind could lead to futures that are outside the passage of fate. Once you have finished your mission, I request that you go to her and support her in every way. You have suffered a similar pain to what she has, and may be able to touch her heart in ways that few others can." I nodded at Faye. "We were going to do that anyway, right?" She hesitantly nodded back. "We were, but..." She turned to Unnrus-kaeljos. "How can we know you're trustworthy after what you've said and what you've done? You were party to the destruction of Indus." "Had I such trust in myself, I would break these bonds and put the world to rights with my own hooves," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "But I have seen how that ends. I offer my end of this bargain up front, with the burden of trust given solely from me to you." "What about our friends?" I asked. "Can you go back and get them, too?" Unnrus-kaeljos shook its head. "My time in this world is nearing its end. But they will be able to find you. The Flames of Harmony watch me incessantly, and will surely tell them where I have taken you." "We'll do it," I said. "I'm... going to need some time to decide what I think of you. But I can't let Coda down. By the way, is Nanzanaya...?" "She knows less of me than she would prefer, yet more than she lets on," Unnrus-kaeljos said. "I have seen her heart. She works towards ends I approve of, as well as ones that are closer to your own goals than you know. The tower she seeks Equestria's help to destroy holds a great and dangerous secret, one inexorably linked to changeling queens like yourself and Coda. If you truly seek to live at peace with this child, you cannot do so until the tower has fallen and you have wrested control of your history and its secrets into your own hooves." I looked at Faye. She looked back at me. It was plain to see that whatever was in this tower, she was suddenly less eager for us to find out. "So," she asked. "Where is Coda?" Corsica stepped out into the sunlight, along with Starlight, Twilight and all of their friends. "I still can't believe," Rainbow complained, "the flames said that thing took Halcyon all the way to the Griffon Empire. Seriously, was it just trying to put some miles between us and her?" "I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it," Twilight said, biting her lip. "As much as I'd like to know she's okay, that's a huge detour we can't afford right now if we want to go to Ironridge, stop the war and fix Kindness's tree." "She should be okay," Corsica grunted. Periodically, she had tried to renew her wish, this time changing it to a general wish that Halcyon would be okay. And after the flames had confirmed that Unnrus-kaeljos dropped her, shortly before fading back out of existence, it had worked like normal - albeit with a small cost, since the flames could basically already tell her Halcyon was in one piece. Wishing for something she already knew to be the case didn't cost much. It was almost like, while Halcyon was in the wave, her wish couldn't form because it was targeting something that didn't exist. They hiked back into town, and Corsica let herself zone out. The sandwich she had wished for earlier proffered itself conveniently. She wasn't too burned out from using her talent, since the things she had wound up paying the price for were small. Shouting at everyone had been a decent way to work off steam from Halcyon ditching her, as well. And now, she just felt drained. Not talent-drained. Normal drained, the way she used to feel when too much dumb stuff happened in one day and she just wanted to curl up and pout and not think about the future. She didn't know what her future would be. What would she do with herself now, drift along as part of this group like a listless sidekick? It would work. Her mission, which she stole from Halcyon when Halcyon was too incompetent to see it through, was to raise the alarm. Now, the alarm had been raised. Her part here was over. But she didn't know what to do with herself, and the pony she had once relied on to drag her through life anyway wasn't just drifting away anymore: she was gone. Corsica couldn't justify destroying her mind over and over with her special talent when it wasn't for the sake of someone she cared about like that. Maybe that was a good thing, since she wouldn't hurt herself this way anymore. Maybe it was a bad thing, since she wouldn't have a reason to get out of bed anymore either. But for now, it couldn't hurt to drift along, to go with the flow until something roused her. Eventually, the others were back, explaining their new plan in detail: Starlight would charge up the Immortal Dream's batteries, then stay here, helping to repair Laughter's palace while everyone else flew west to the Crystal Empire. It would take ten days, their cruising speed reduced slightly thanks to a finite supply of fuel forcing them to fly more efficiently - but it was a time loss they judged the could afford, in the name of helping repair the damage their efforts had caused. When they got to the Empire, Twilight would arrange for regular train and mail service to Our Town, and Starlight would catch up that way, since she could somehow ignore the train limitations. If Halcyon magically came back during that time period, Starlight would bring her, since she could do the same. Also, they were taking Wheelcakes. The engineer had serious wanderlust, and couldn't live out her profession or use her talent in a town where she couldn't leave by train. It worked out, since Twilight wanted to theorycraft about the rails anyway, and Wheelcakes had more first-hoof experience with them not working than everyone else put together. All of this information bounced off Corsica's ears, like it was happening to someone else in a story, and not to her. Her own thoughts were stuck, paralyzed, endlessly running and going nowhere, just like the trains. All she could think about was what she was going to do now. End of Act 3 ... One week ago, in Ponyville... Boop! Papyrus stared himself up and down, standing on the empty train station platform as a modest wind blew past. "You know, for how much you talked that up, I really don't feel any different." Discord shrugged, himself and Papyrus the only souls around - mostly because everyone else had left when they saw Discord coming. "Oh, there's a difference, believe me. This is working, right?" He waved at you, then knocked on the fourth wall. "Yep! Seems to be working. Congratulations, welcome to the P.O.V. crew, we don't have any doughnuts, how did this spiel go again?" He stopped to rub his chin in thought. "Ah, yes! Now that there are four of you, maybe you'll be able to spice this production up a little bit, though Hallie getting two slots for free on account of her multiple personalities is probably cheating..." Papyrus nodded idly, mostly ignoring the draconequus and trying to feel for anything different about himself. There really wasn't anything... and he had once been an evil god who ate emotions and brands and all sorts of dark magic, so he liked to think he could recognize new powers when he got them. "Prove it," he said, cutting off Discord's ramble. "Give me a way to measure what this 'pneuma' of yours changed." "You can't quantify your own existence from beyond the frame of reference you exist in, silly pony." Discord waggled a talon. "Let's just say that now you've got an extra frame of reference, making you matter just a little more to the overall course of history, along with any historians who might be watching." Papyrus inspected his hoof. "So if I took myself, one random pony and a hundred historians, and gave them each a choice of being in a room with me or with that rando, you're saying this change of yours would make more of them choose me?" Discord whistled innocently. "Trying too hard to suss this out will make your brains explode. Didn't you have a favor you asked me here for?" Papyrus rolled his eyes. "I will figure out what you did to me, even if it turns out to be nothing whatsoever. But fine... One trash can teleport ticket to the Crystal Empire, please. Old Butterfly has an awful habit of leaving her crew behind, and I could use some capable minions if I'm really going through with this whole reconquer-and-fix-my-old-empire thing. Especially the ones that were originally my minions back in the glory days. Hup hup!" Discord and Papyrus traded a few more barbs before making their way towards a nearby trash can. Stand close enough, and one could feel like they were right there with them, but step back, and you would soon find the borders of a screen silhouetting the window into their antics. Many such screens floated alongside it, in a starry void lit from below by a green and teal aurora. Most of those screens were blank, showing only a flickering gray static. But two others were lit, one showing Corsica on the deck of the Immortal Dream in a cave in the Everfree, admiring the ship's construction and worrying over the apparatus for holding its harmony comet. Another showed Halcyon on the ground below, doing the same.