//------------------------------// // Interlude: The Disruption // Story: When Darkness Falls... // by XTech309 //------------------------------// Twilight and Starlight trotted through the halls of Twilight's Castle in Ponyville, discussing the affairs of the School of Friendship when, to their surprise, Discord appeared out of nowhere in a flash of light. "Gah!" Twilight exclaimed, jerking back involuntarily and spreading her wings. "Discord? What are you doing here?" "Well, Princess, if you must know, I recently caught wind of the fact that you and Starlight are now aware of the multiverse. Frankly, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. As your friend, I would have liked to have known this sooner." He replied condescendingly. "Fine, I'm sorry." Twilight huffed. "But even if that were the case, you haven't exactly been around. Speaking of which, where have you been?" "Oh, you know, just Lord of Chaos things. I may be reformed, but I still have an image to uphold, you know." "So, what, you want to talk to us about it? We've already sorted it out mostly on our own." Starlight said. "Yes, I am aware of that, but I thought maybe you two would like some more clarification for peace of mind, I imagine the multiverse pill has been a hard one to swallow." "H-hang on, wait a second, pause." Twilight interjected. "You already knew about this?" "Of course I did, Princess. I'm actually quite offended that you think I wouldn't!" He replied with mock offense. "O-okay, well, since you're offering... What is the 'multiverse'?" Starlight asked. "Think of it like an ocean, a very vast ocean." He began, snapping his fingers and manifesting a small replica of an ocean in front of him. "Now think of Equestria as an island." He manifested an island in the small ocean. "And now imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of other islands scattered across the seemingly infinite expanse." Countless other islands also manifested. "In the case of something like the human world where your friend Sunset lives, think of it as two islands very close together, close enough that you only have to jump to reach it," he used two fingers to make a jumping motion from one island to the other. "Now, the further away you get, the harder it is to make the jump, and the more different they are from Equestria. While the human world is more or less a mirror of this one, others couldn't be more different." "Have you been to any other worlds besides Equestria?" Starlight asked. "Back in my more villainous days, yes, but I rarely if ever got directly involved in any of them, I was more of a spectator back then. The laws and continuums and whatnot of the multiverse are something even a being like me can't be bothered to deal with. So sometimes, even now, when I'm bored, I like to peek into other 'islands' and see what's up there. And since I can't do what I used to do as a reformer... I've been watching a lot more". "Why have you never bothered to tell us about this before?" Twilight asked accusingly. "If you had, maybe we could have been more prepared than we were!" "Well, you see, it's not that simple, Princess." He replied. "Remember what I said about islands? That brings me to my next point: This should not have been possible." "W-what do you mean?" Starlight asked in a worried tone. "The farther out you go, and the greater the distance between 'islands,' the harder it is to get from one to the other. So hard, in fact, that almost every world has absolutely no idea that there are others; they just live in their own little bubbles forever. Equestria should have been no different. After a certain point, multiversal travel becomes extremely difficult even for me, and there are very few beings who can do it at all. "If giving us peace of mind was your goal, you're not doing a very good job." Twilight said. "My apologies, Princess, but to be quite honest, part of the reason I came here was to ask if you two knew anything of significance; ever since I heard about this little incident, it's been a difficult puzzle to solve." "I can give you a brief description of our intruder, if that'll help. Imagine something like one of the humans from the other world, only with one eye and mostly covered in static. He didn't seem to have any magic of his own, because he used this weird remote-like device every time he did something. It was, uh, how I got frozen, apparently. I don't remember much about it, but according to my friends, it was a really scary thing to witness. Also, Starlight here still can't cast Rope Charmer, and it's been a month. Have you heard of anything or anyone like that?" "No, I can't say that I have. Again, the multiverse is so vast that even in all the time I've lived, I've only scratched the metaphorical surface of what's out there. Truth be told, I never really cared to explore that much. Equestria is where I've always been at home, and just watching other worlds makes me feel like a fish out of water. It is best for all of us that we stay away from each other. We're separated for a reason, you know." "And what's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked. "Hm." Discord thought for a moment. "To make it easier for you to understand, I'll use you as an example. In the vast majority of cases, worlds aren't supposed to cross over for the same reasons that evil Starlight couldn't be allowed to stop the Rainboom." "...Because it could change the timeline?" "Exactly. A crossover, should one happen, introduces a wild card into things and has the potential to dramatically change the timeline of events, just like back then, only on a much larger scale. Yes, sometimes it works, the human world being a case in point, of course, but this sort of thing is unpredictable and therefore dangerous. Even at my most evil, I was well aware of the risks of imposing my will on other worlds, and fortunately never interfered directly. I did come close once, but that's a story for another time. "Do you think this 'crossover' might have already changed the timeline?" Starlight asked. "Technically, yes. I mean, we're having this conversation, aren't we? I doubt this would have been part of the original timeline, if there had been one. But since this crossover was so short and there were no long-lasting effects, any changes would be minimal at worst. You said it yourself, Starlight, you figured it out on your own. It could be argued that this was just a little detour from the original timeline, and nothing more than that. On the other hand, one might say that this was part of the original timeline. And that is why I have never told any of you, the laws of the multiverse and reality as we know it can sometimes be so complex that telling you unnecessarily would only place an unnecessary burden on you both. Best to leave that to me." "I see what you mean." Starlight said, putting a hoof to her temple and rubbing it as she tried to make sense of what Discord was saying. "Forgetting all that for a second: Should we be worried?" "Overall, no. While I've never heard of a being like the one you described, or an all-powerful device capable of this kind of multiversal travel, and that does raise an eyebrow, you and your friends still defeated him. And since there weren't any huge, Equestria-destroying changes made to the timeline, I'd say just go on with life as usual. Think of the multiverse as a well-oiled machine in the context of small, inconsequential crossovers like this. Even though it's meticulously maintained, there are still going to be mistakes, but they're so rare that you shouldn't expect anything like this to happen again." "What about the human world?" Starlight asked. "It seems to have had more of an effect there, especially in Sunset. It wasn't too long after it happened that I had to help her through some mental struggles regarding her experience. I mean, he tried to kill her over there. I'm honestly surprised she's not worse off." Discord's eyes widened slightly at that. "Well then perhaps that should be my next destination, I've been ovedue for a visit there anyway. Until next time, my friends!" He disappeared in an explosion of confetti.