//------------------------------// // Fit the Seventh // Story: Through the Looking-glass and What Pinkie Found There // by Ponky //------------------------------// ||Fit the Seventh|| Twilight, at first, was breathless, but she soon found it within herself to blurt, “Then where did you get your sour perception of Princess Celestia!?” Star Swirl raised his thick eyebrows and chuckled at her sudden volume. “My, my. I did not mean to upset you so.” Expelling a long breath between pursed lips, Twilight shook her head. “No, no, I’m sorry. I’m really grateful for you telling me. It’s just that… it’s all so much to take in.” “I will not argue that,” Star Swirl said, smiling. “I will try to be as clear as I can with all of your questions. As for that first one, I spent enough ti… er… well, I got to know each of the alicorns well enough in the Wabe while they were herding its creatures back through the rift. Besides, they all had starkly different and dynamic personalities that it was not hard to feel as if you ‘knew’ them right away.” “What were their personalities?” Twilight asked. “Celestia was certainly a leader,” Star Swirl remembered, “but also something of a hothead. Though the alicorns were in every way glorious and respectable, they were not without their flaws. Each of them had something of a noticeable vice, and Celestia’s wisdom and power were sometimes hidden behind her ego. “Alula was very quiet, I remember, even to a fault, and seemed to always be thinking about some distant event of great importance. “Calupan was my favorite, if I am to be honest. He had a fondness for the sea, as did I, and a jovial personality that always brought a smile and hearty laugh. “Piedra was an interesting fellow; he seemed to have a big heart and longed to be of help, but sometimes shied away from responsibility. “Beatrix was also very quiet, though in a different way. She paid very close attention to everything that was said, and whenever she spoke it was as if the sky itself was singing. I thought that she may have been your teacher because she was always very keen to learn more about ponykind and impart to them some of her expansive knowledge. “Luna was noticeably younger than the rest of them and seemed to always be getting in the way, though she was quite aware of it. Still, her siblings—for so they called each other—were all very kind and patient with her…” He winced. “Except for Celestia. She had a rather sharp tongue when it came to communicating with her youngest sister. They rarely got along, and though I respected both of them, I was rather more fond of Luna, and so my opinion of Celestia suffered.” Twilight looked horrified. “But Celestia isn’t… a hothead! Celestia is kind and wise and quiet and thoughtful and full of power and… and all those things you said about the others. She’s interested in everypony she rules over, and she loves her sister more than anything!” “I believe you!” Star Swirl said, holding up his hooves with a gentle smile. “I have no qualm with the Celestia you know, believe me. Hearts are sure to change in over a thousand years. I am glad to hear that she improved herself—though, if I’m honest, I do wonder why you, a personal student to the leader of the alicorns, have not heard of Beatrix.” “Actually, sir,” Twilight said, ears drooping, “I’ve never known any alicorn but Celestia and Luna. I had… heard rumors… that the Sultan of Haissan is an alicorn, but I never thought to ask the princess about it.” She ran her hoof over her face. “In fact, I haven’t thought to bother the princess with a lot of things recently.” “I believe that to be commendable,” Star Swirl said. “As a teacher to beloved students, I promise there is nothing more rewarding than to see a pupil use my teachings to solve a difficult problem on their own.” Twilight grinned. “Thank you, Star Swirl. I hope the princess feels the same.” Again, she ground her hoof against her pulsing temple. “I still have so many questions…” “Any that I can answer?” She bit her lip. “What did you mean by… by calling Celestia the ‘bearer of the Element of Loyalty’?” The old wizard blinked in surprise. “Goodness, now you’re making me second guess myself. Has she told you anything about her past?” “Not really,” Twilight admitted, “but it’s never felt as though she was keeping secrets.” “Well, the Elements of Harmony are surely artifacts of appropriate scholarly discussion. You must have heard of them, I hope.” “Oh, yes!” Twilight assured him. “In fact, I myself am the bearer of the Element of Magic.” A long silence followed her reveal. Star Swirl’s jaw dropped open as slowly as a tortoise’s. “Y-… you?” he bumbled. His hat slipped halfway off his head. “You are connected with the Element of Magic?” Grimacing, Twilight leaned forward and said, “Star Swirl, there must be something I’m completely missing here. Would you mind explaining what you know about the Elements?” “It’s not much, I’m afraid,” the sorcerer said. “At some point since the rift was sealed, I gathered enough courage to further study the Sundial. After much hard work I discovered this place’s natural connection with other dimensions.” “Through mirrors?” Twilight interrupted. “Well, yes, but not exclusively,” Star Swirl corrected her. “You see, if my observations are correct, the Wabe acts as something of a centerpoint—a hub, if you prefer the term—that connects every other dimension in the universe. I can’t pretend to understand it, but it seems there are several factors of connectivity, the strongest of which are reflective surfaces, for whatever reason. “By analyzing my mistakes with the first portal, I managed to open a small and stable one, connected not with a specific place, but to the Wabe’s very relationship with the universe.” “That’s the Portal we used to get in here, Twilight!” Pinkie chirped from a corner of the room where the Snark was tickling her underbelly. “You made that?” the unicorn asked her superior. “Only by tapping into an already existing phenomenon,” Star Swirl said. “It’s quite a complicated system, one that Pinkie understands far more than I was ever able to. I used it to visit Clover once. As you can imagine, it came as quite a shock to see his mentor step out from his bedroom mirror. I tried to explain the process to him, but my memory began to slip away before I properly expressed myself. Embarrassed, I reentered the Wabe and have not left it since, though I think I may have worried Clover into launching his recent exhibition.” “Relatively recent,” Twilight added with a lopsided grin. Star Swirl laughed. “Indeed. Though I did not visit Equestria again, I used my Portal many times to observe the past. From my limited perspectives, I have managed to deduce the discovery of the Elements. They were fabled charms of enormous power for centuries before my time, of course, but never had they been obtained and used by searching hooves. The six alicorns, when informed of the Elements, journeyed to find them, believing they held the secret of defeating the Jabberwock. “I know not of their journey, but only that they succeeded, and each took upon themselves an Element suited to their natures, of which Celestia’s was Loyalty.” “And who bore Magic?” Twilight asked with sparkling eyes. Star Swirl smiled. “Princess Luna, I believe.” A faint smile twitched on Twilight lips, even as her brow creased. “I… I had no idea. I was never told.” “I cannot profess to know everything that happened next,” Star Swirl said, “but I feel that it is right to tell you what I’ve learned through my exploits at the Portal. The six used the Elements and encased the Jabberwock in stone, freeing Equestria from his chaotic reign. The citizens appointed the alicorns as their new rulers and monarchs. The great beings accepted the duties and further took upon themselves the care of the natural world, lifting a great burden from the shoulders of the ponies. It took nearly every able-horned unicorn to raise the Sun and Moon, while Celestia and Luna could each do it on their own. Alula took charge of the winds, Beatrix of the plants and animals, Piedra of the earth, and Calupan of the sea. “Now, of course, with my Portal, I had the great advantage of leaping forward along the timeline. Some decades later, the ponies of Equestria had taken to a form of worship, treating the alicorns as deities. It was an understandable practice, of course, but the problem lie in the hierarchy with which they ordered the alicorns. Celestia became the primary object of their worship—which, again, makes perfect sense from their perspective, considering she raised the Sun which is an indisputable source of life and power—while the rest of the alicorns took the roles of lesser gods, angels, or even servants to the great Queen of the Day. “From what I have seen, Celestia basked in the limelight, for though she loved her siblings, the poison of popularity made her blind to the shadow she cast over her siblings. It grew ever longer as years passed, until one alicorn decided she had lived in the background for long enough.” “Luna,” Twilight whispered. Star Swirl sighed. “Well, at least you know that story. The poor mare was so corrupted by jealousy that she became Nightmare Moon and tried to overthrow Celestia. Knowing she could not win against the bearer of Magic, and in an act of what I will boldly call stupidity, Celestia took upon herself all six Elements of Harmony—without her siblings’ consent—and banished her youngest sister to the Moon. “As you can imagine, that did not fare well with the others, but who dared face Celestia now that she held the power of six gods in her hoof? Unable to look on their sister, they simply vanished, one by one, to the far corners of Equus, leaving Celestia alone to rule her nation. “I stopped observing after that, far too emotionally distraught by something in which I could have no part.” He forced a smile. “But I am glad to know Luna is back, and that Celestia seems to have changed, enough even to pass the Elements on to… mortal ponies.” He shook his head and smirked. Twilight’s face was frozen in a look of abject horror. “No,” she breathed. “It… it can’t be true.” Star Swirl frowned sympathetically and placed a hoof on Twilight’s sagging shoulder. “Perhaps it is not,” he said. “I may have misinterpreted the entire debacle. Perhaps, if you are so close to Celestia, you might ask her for the truth of the matter.” Twilight nodded and absentmindedly rose to her hooves. “It was an indescribable honor to meet you, sir, but I really think I ought to go home and do that right away.” The old wizard nodded. “I entirely agree. Go on, then. The Snark will lead you back to the Sundial.” He turned to Pinkie Pie, who was wrestling the Snark with her forehooves tied behind her back. “Pinkie, I do hope you can help Miss Sparkle back into your world with as few distractions as possible.” Eyes alight, she tried to salute, but ended up toppling over herself and knocking several precious looking stones from a cabinet against the wall. They shattered on the ground. Twilight snapped out of her trance and gasped. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Starswirl chuckled and waved his hoof. “It’s not a problem. I’m sure they’ll mend themselves sooner or later. Everything else does in the Wabe.” Pinkie Pie zipped across the floor and tucked her foreleg under one of Twilight’s, dragging her to the front door with the Snark close behind. “See ya later, Swirly!” Pinkie called out, swishing the door open with her tail. “Farewell, Pinkie Pie. And it was a real privilege to meet you, Miss Sparkle. I wish you the very best on your studies and hope to see you again.” The unicorn barely managed a nod before Pinkie slammed the door shut behind them and raced after the bounding Snark. ||PP|| “What’d you talk to Swirly about, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, galloping alongside her friend as they swerved between trees and hurdled odd roots following the Snark back to the center of the Wabe. “You weren’t listening?” Twilight shouted. “Pinkie Pie, everything I know about Princess Celestia might be a lie! I-I don’t know what to think or believe… but I know what I have to do. I have to…” She swallowed hard and took a few deep breaths as her hooves slammed into the varying terrains of the island. “I have to go to Canterlot and find out for myself exactly what’s going on.” “But you got a lot of your questions answered, didn’t you?” Pinkie asked, jumping onto her tail with her hind legs and using it to grind along an overturned log. “Well, yes,” Twilight admitted, tossing her mane out of her face. “I don’t understand the Wabe yet, but I know what it is. I know how it’s connected to our world and why Bluish Carol knew about the creatures of Tartarus. But along with that, I know a bunch of stuff I never came here to find—” “YAAAAAUGH!” Pinkie yelped, and disappeared from Twilight’s side. The unicorn skidded to a stop. “Pinkie!” she shouted, staring into the thick treeline. “Pinkie, are you okay?” There was no answer. Twilight looked over her shoulder at the Snark, far ahead of her and continuing on its way. “Wait!” she called out, but the creature didn’t hear her, vanishing around a corner. She bit her lip, throwing her eyes between the darkness of the trees and the Snark’s path. Groaning loudly, she jumped from the path and peeled her eyes for pink. “Pinkie, this isn’t funny!” she shouted. “We’re going to lose the Snark if we don’t hurry up! Pinkie?” Beginning to worry, Twilight picked up her pace, weaving in between the foreign trunks of a strange forest, shouting her friend’s name. “Pinkie, where are you?” “Twiliiiiiiight!” The shriek came from even deeper into the tulgey wood, and Twilight immediately answered the call. “I’m coming, Pinkie!” she yelled, teleporting again and again as far as she dared. “Where are you!?” “Twiiiiiiliiiiiiiiight!” The yell was even quieter now. “PINKIE!” Twilight screamed, imagining some ferocious creature ripping the pony to fluffy shreds. “Pinkie Piiiie!” One last flash of teleporting magic brought her out of the forest—standing on thin air over an impossibly deep chasm. “Gaaah!” she yelped, trying to swim back to the cliff’s edge, but panic overtook her and she plummeted downward. “AAAAAHHHHH!” Channeling as much magic through her horn as she could, Twilight managed to wrap herself in an aura of levitation. It wasn’t enough to keep her still, but it was plenty to slow her fall until she landed semi-gently at the bottom of the crag. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” Twilight whimpered, trotting in place as she glanced around. “Okay, Twilight, everything’s gonna be fine… you just have to get out of this—” She looked up at the sliver of light at least a mile over her head. “—canyon… and then you have to find Pinkie Pie, and possibly rescue her from ravenous creatures of mythical desolation.” She gulped. “No problem! You’ve faced much worse…” Her lip quivered. “…with five other ponies at your side. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” Twilight collapsed and draped her forelegs over her head. “What have I done? Oh, sweet Celestia, what have I done? I never should have come in here! I should have left all this crazy nonsense to itself and focused on Dinky. Where is she now? How long have I been gone? Did Ditzy and Daring and Rainbow find the cake twins in Haissan? Will I ever even know?” She sobbed into the cold stone beneath her, flattening her ears against her head. A tiny chattering noise to her right made her gasp and lift her head. A number of tiny, wide-eyed animals squealed and dove for the shadows. Twilight hugged herself, flicking her vision from one concealing rock to the next. “Go away! Shoo, all of you!” They peeked around their hiding places, blinking curiously. “Shoo! I said get away from me!” She wiggled a hoof toward one of them. “Go on, get out of here! Don’t you hurt me, or I’ll…” The creatures didn’t seem to understand her, glancing at one another with perplexed expressions. She swallowed. “I-I-I’ll… throw you! With magic!” The tiny critters of various size, shape, and texture only moved closer. “I said I’ll push you! I will do it!” she hissed at the ring of them closing in around her. “Look, see?” She grabbed a nearby rock in her magic and tossed it aside. It landed with a dull thump five or six feet away. “I’ll do that to you! I’m not kidding!” When still they didn’t seem to understand a word she yelled, Twilight gingerly lifted an orange frog-like creature and shook him around in the air. “You see this? I’m gonna throw him! I’ll do it!” She magically swung the frog as if preparing to launch him further down the canyon. Finally, the animals stopped approaching to watch her antics with utmost fascination. The creature in her violet aura croaked and squirmed, folding its arms over its chest in a deep pout. “Oh, don’t do that!” Twilight said, setting it between a couple other tiny animals. “I’m sorry! I was just trying to use you as a visual example.” To her surprise, it cupped a hand around its hole of an ear. “I said I was trying to use you as a visual example,” she repeated, blushing. It shoved a webbed finger into its earhole and spun it around, removed small bits of wax before leaning even closer to Twilight. She frowned. “I said I was using you as a visual example!” she shouted. In unison, every one of the creatures made noises like “Ooohhh!” and nodded their heads, smiling peacefully at Twilight. She snapped her jaw shut and blinked. “You understood that?” she asked. Their expressions became confused, and she rolled her eyes. “Of course you didn’t. Oh, why can’t Fluttershy be here? I’m no good with animals… except for owls, I suppose…” “Oooowls, did you say?” a smooth, sultry voice purred from overhead. Twilight gasped and ducked lower to the ground, sweeping her eyes in every direction to find the source of the voice. “Who’s there?” “Who, me? Why does it matter? I’m certainly not an owl.” It snickered playfully. “I don’t care what you are,” Twilight said. “I asked you who you are.” “Who? Who! Who.” Another airy laugh echoed through the canyon walls. “Perhaps I am an owl after all.” “Show yourself!” Twilight demanded, rising to her hooves. “As you wish,” the voice said in a carefree sing-song voice. It started to chuckle, a noise which, at first, bounced to Twilight’s perked ears from every direction, but gradually it focused until all the noise was coming from an empty spot on top of a rock directly in front of her hooves. Twilight stepped away, careful not to squish any of the tiny animals still watching with giant eyes. “Are you… invisible?” Twilight asked. “I can be,” the voice replied, followed by a long silence. Twilight bit her lip. “Well… can you not be?” “Of course I can’t not be. Even if I ceased to be, you would still remember me, and so I’d be a memory. I’d become ‘was’ rather than ‘am’, but both are still ‘to be’.” “Whu… huh? I… I don’t…” “Goodness, child, don’t strain yourself! You’re getting violet in the face. Well… you know what I mean. Heeheehee…” Twilight scowled and flicked a hoof in the voice’s direction. “If you can stop being invisible, please do. It’s making me uncomfortable.” “And how do you think I feel, being asked to dress in front of a lady?” “Dress?” Twilight scoffed. “I’m not asking you to—” “When you dress, you cover things that were not previously seen, yes?” “I… well…” “You can’t see me, but you wish to, so in asking me to cover my absence with presence, and seeing that you are, in fact, a mare, I do believe I’m being asked to dress in front of a lady.” The voice tittered. “Oh, dear… I do believe you’re making me blush.” Twilight gaped as two rosy spots of color materialized above the rock. To her further astonishment, an enormous, toothy grin soon appeared beneath the rouge, followed by a bright pair of slyly narrowed eyes. Stumbling back, Twilight fell on her rump and sat amidst a group of gawking critters as, bit by bit, a clay-brown feline faded into existence before her eyes. “That’s impossible…” she breathed. “Quite incorrect, but I won’t argue with you,” the cat said, rising from its belly and stretching its front legs, swishing its lazy tail. Through all the motions, he—for by the voice Twilight assigned it a male gender—never lost his face-splitting grin. “I’ve seen a lot of weird things around here,” Twilight said, “but you’re the first weird thing that can talk.” “Sometimes I wonder if we all can talk,” the cat admitted, leaping gracefully from its post and smoothing down the bright green fur of one miniature creature, “but I’m the only one who knows enough words.” “How?” Twilight asked. “The chloroplasts do most of the work, I believe.” Twilight squinted. “What?” “You only gave me part of a question,” the cat said. “I had to make up the rest myself.” Grunting, Twilight articulated, “How are you able to speak?” “I move my lips for the consonants, my tongue for the most of the vowels, and something in my throat just buzzes away and moves up and down as it’s told.” Slamming a hoof into her forehead, Twilight mumbled, “Okay, fine, I get it. Look, I don’t have any time to waste with pointless conversation. My friend might be in a lot of trouble, and I’m stuck at the bottom of this stupid crag, so unless you have some way to help me, I need to get going.” “I do,” the cat said, examining its claws. Twilight tilted her head. “You do what?” “I do have some way to help you,” the cat explained. “Your friend was taken by the Bandersnatch and it plans to add her to its next meal.” “Oh no!” “I will bring you to its cave if you follow one suggestion.” “Really? Oh, thank you!” Twilight moved nearer to the mysterious cat. “What do I have to do?” Somehow, his long smile grew even wider as his eyelids closed halfway. “Follow her advice. It’s usually very good.” “Whose? Pinkie Pie’s?” But the cat wasn’t there to answer, nor was the canyon there to reverberate her words. Instead, Twilight found herself staring into a huge, dark cave. She gasped and cantered backward, reminded of the dragon’s cave she had to enter some years previous. This cavern, however, was infinitely more terrifying, as the creature within it was not only unfamiliar, but Pinkie’s life was hanging on the line by a single strand of her mane, so to speak. “How did he…” Twilight whispered, looking everywhere for the cat. Focusing instead on the task at hoof and trying her best not to panic, Twilight pressed herself against the right wall of the cave and hurried into the darkness, scanning the blackness for some sign of pink. As Twilight’s eyes adjusted to the chilling darkness, she saw the great dimensions of the cave in eerie clarity. The long tunnel led into a great, jagged dome of wet, grey rock. The floor of the cave was bumpy and irregular, tilting toward the center where a makeshift cauldron, carved from a lopsided boulder, floated in a natural pool of steaming water. Inside the cauldron, a smelly liquid simmered. Twilight could see stark white bones bobbing at its surface. The Bandersnatch itself had its back turned to Twilight, crushing something in the corner of the cave. Twilight grimaced, hoping with all her might that the crunches were not from Pinkie Pie’s bones. She hid herself behind a pile of discarded skeletons, bathed in the dark of the cave. Steeling her nerves, Twilight moved from heap to heap of pre-devoured carcasses, approaching the monster as quickly as she dared. The Bandersnatch’s grinding slowed until it turned around, revealing its hideous features to the hidden pony. Its neck was long and worm-like, supporting a squat head with distant eyes and greasy, matted fur. It stood on tall, stork legs and stalked toward its cauldron, dumping a fistful of fresh, green powder into its broth. Without bending over, it stretched its slimy neck toward the soup until its head rested just above the lip of the pot. Its tongue flicked into the liquid and drew back enough to swallow, followed by a loud smack of its lips and a disapproving grunt. To Twilight’s relief, it moved to another part of the cave and revealed a familiar pony slumped against the opposite wall of the cave from where she hid. “Pinkie!” Twilight said under her breath, but her excitement faded as her vision cleared. “Pinkie?” The pony was definitely Pinkie Pie, identifiable by the frizz of her mane and tail and the trio of balloons on her flank, but—unless the lack of light was playing tricks on Twilight’s mind—the party pony’s coat had turned completely black. Her hair was as white as snow, her eyes grey and lifeless, and though she shivered in a ball, her face bore no expression. “Oh, Pinkie Pie…” Twilight breathed, stealing a glance at the Bandersnatch. It was occupied in another section of the dome, giving Twilight the confidence to sprint across the slanted floor and stop at Pinkie’s side. She lifted the vacant pony’s head with a hoof tried, with no avail, to look into her eyes. “What happened to you?” A sharp sniff from the Bandersnatch sent chills down Twilight’s spine. She whipped her gaze in its direction just as its head snaked around to see her. With a hoarse, monotone roar, the beast leapt from its crouch and bounded at Twilight on birdlike legs. Yelping, Twilight hoisted Pinkie Pie onto her back and scrambled out of the monster’s way. Its claws scraped and sparked along the stone ground before it collided with the wall, chasing the galloping unicorn through the tunnel that led into its cave. The clacks of its talons reverberated in the wide tunnel. Twilight knew by their increasing volume that the creature was closing the gap. Struggling to keep Pinkie’s limp form balanced, she sparked up her horn and sent a blast of magic over her shoulder. The Bandersnatch howled, more in surprise than pain, and veered off course enough for it to slam into the wall. Twilight kept sprinting forward until the dim light of the Wabe’s unpredictable sky replaced the dripping rock above her head. She stopped for just a moment, holding Pinkie in the air with magic as she poked and prodded her face and ribcage. “Pinkie! Wake up! Are you okay?” The pony’s jaw fell open, revealing a snow-white tongue and coal-black teeth. Repulsed, Twilight slammed Pinkie onto her own back and took off toward the central forest of the strange island. “Stay with me, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “I’m sure this will all go away if we can just get back home.” The persistent roar of the Bandersnatch reminded her of that task’s difficulty. Clenching her teeth, Twilight lowered her head and broke through the treeline without slowing. She wove between the trunks as aptly as a Snark, following her instinct sense of direction to find the center of the island. The horrible sound of snapping branches and scattered soil blared behind her. She tried to pay her pursuer no mind, teleporting herself and Pinkie Pie forward several yards at a time. As she came to a particularly thick collection of trees, Twilight had an idea. Staring up through the branches, she focused her teleportation in a different direction. In a flash, the pair of ponies were airborne, above the branches, but Twilight wasn’t done. Flaring her magic again, she rose even higher above the forest, repeating the climb until she had a good enough vantage point to spot the island’s central Sundial. “Here we go, Pinkie!” Twilight screamed, squeezing her eyes shut to focus on her horn. With a series of flashes and pops, Twilight carried them through the air and nearer to the Sundial, teleport after teleport, like a pinball in giant, invisible machine. With a final crack of brilliant magic, Twilight collapsed at the foot of the monument, blinking yellow stars out of her eyes. Fear struck her every nerve as the trees nearest to the base of the spiral-decorated hill parted to reveal the fuming Bandersnatch, rising to its full height which matched the tallest conifers. Twilight set Pinkie on the ground and stood between her and the monster, baring her teeth and allowing a few menacing sparks to shoot from her horn. The Bandersnatch took three steps forward before it froze in place. It stared at the hill for a long moment, its eyes following the dark spiral that cut through its cream-colored grass, and then it snarled at the purple pony at the peak. With a resounding snap of its frumious jaws, the beast began to stalk around the foot of the hill, never looking away from its prey. Twilight held her breath, examining the beast’s behavior. When the thought occurred to her that creatures of the Wabe could not approach the Sundial, or even mount the hill, she expelled her air in a sigh of relief. “Phhew! We’re gonna be okay, Pinkie! Don’t you worry.” She turned around to see the blackened pony twitching on the ground. Wincing, Twilight dropped to her dear friend’s level and pushed her mane out of her face. “Oh gosh, Pinkie! I-I don’t know what to do! There must be something around here that can help you!” She gasped as she spotted the Portal at the foot of the creamy hill. “Of course! Come on, Pinkie…” Once again, Twilight lifted Pinkie in her magic and trotted down the slope with the poor pony in tote. The Bandersnatch lapped around its invisible barrier, keeping as close to Twilight and Pinkie as it could. Bravely, Twilight did her best to keep from looking at it. Luckily, the Portal was within her range of sanctuary. It was still looking through the mirror on the Lutwidge, and for a moment Twilight was tempted to check up on Feather and the crew. Instead, she pressed her hooves over her eyes and tried to imagine Pinkie’s bedroom. “Come on, now,” she hissed. “We need to get home. We have to get back.” She opened her eyes, reached out a hoof, and flicked it to the right as she had seen Pinkie do. The floating hole in the air collapsed and instantly reappeared in a different shape—but not the tall rectangle Twilight expected. “Oh, come on!” she shouted. “Don’t you understand how important this is? My friend might be dying!” She swiped her hoof again, and again, but each time the Portal seemed to change at random, no matter what image Twilight tried to project on it from her mind. “Why isn’t this working!?” she screamed, flicking through mirror after Equestrian mirror. “I need this to work! Work, dang it!” She stopped opening new Portals and slammed her hooves angrily into the center of the solid shape. On the other side, a blue pony sitting in a large throne looked toward her. She hopped back, waiting for the image to sharpen. A pony out of the frame began speaking in Haissanic. To Twilight’s amazement, though she had never studied the language, she could understand every word he spoke. “Are you all right, my liege?” The large blue pony blinked. By the intricate shape of the Portal and her viewpoint, Twilight determined she was in a mirror on the wall of a large throne room. She dared to take a few steps nearer, hidden from the view of the real-world ponies while able to watch and hear them. “I thought I heard something…” the seated stallion said. After a dismissive shake of his head, he ruffled his wings and turned to face the two stallions waiting before the throne. With a strangled gasp, Twilight noticed the blue pony was an alicorn. “Alula…” she whispered, turning her ears to better hear their every, magically translated word. “Do you mean to tell me,” the sultan asked in an even voice, “that she bore twins?” “She must have, my liege,” a three-legged pegasus replied, leaning on one of his lowered wings for support. “One unicorn, one pegasus.” Alula’s brow lowered. “Open the basket.” The stallions complied. With two flaps of his enormous wings, the dark blue stallion landed in front of the sleeping babies’ wicker cradle. Even from her distance, Twilight could see his shoulders tense. “They are infants,” he said in a low tone. “Just as you predicted, my liege,” said a servant. In a movement so swift that Twilight flinched, the sultan swung a hoof and struck the speaker in his snout. “Fool! If they had separated at birth into regular breeds, the slow aging of an alicorn would have had no effect!” He growled and spun around, rustling his wings. “You have brought me the wrong foals!” The servants cowered behind the baby ponies’ basket as Alula paced and snorted. “A-Are you certain, my liege?” one of them stuttered. “Of course I am certain!” he bellowed. “I would know my own child—or children—I assure you.” “Then we shall return them immediately.” “It is not so simple! She will be expecting you now. She may have even moved the child to a new location!” The alicorn slammed a hoof into the tile and slumped, dropping his regal head and allowing his mane to fall about his face. “You have committed a great failure. I have waited eight years for a chance to rescue my offspring from her reign, and you have obliterated that opportunity.” “We apologize to no end, my liege,” the three-legged pony wailed, pressing his forehead into the ground. “Forgive us. We will act with a great deal of swiftness and accuracy.” Alula laughed. “I cannot believe that.” He dropped to his haunches and smoothed his mane back with a trembling hoof. “Your chance for action has passed. I will not let Celestia’s overthrow be held back by your impotence any longer.” Twilight’s pupils shrunk. “Overthrow?” The stallions seemed as shocked as she. “What did you say?” Alula’s upper lip raised. “Ah, yes, I quite forgot how long you had been scouting in Equestria.” Clearing his throat, the monarch said, “I assume you are aware of the events that transpired three years ago concerning the return of Nightmare Moon.” Both of the servants nodded. Twilight leaned closer to the mirror. “In her defeat, the Elements were transferred away from Celestia. She is no longer connected to their power.” A light glinted in his periwinkle eye. “The time has finally come for me to strike, but I will not release the monsters until my child is safe at my side. And now, you may have extended that time by tenfold!” Twilight shuddered as a sudden coldness appeared in Alula’s countenance. A gust of frozen air tossed the servants’ manes. “To ensure my next scouts do not make the same mistakes, I must make an example of your failure.” As the Haissanic pegasi began to scream for mercy, Twilight swiped her hoof across the surface of the Portal. The horrible scene vanished from her senses, replaced with a serene view of a bustling outlet store. As Twilight’s breath returned to her, the implications of what she had seen weighed her spirit down. “Oh my gosh,” she said. “Pinkie, it’s all coming together. Daring’s new book… the grey pegasus… Dinky must be Alula’s daughter! And if he finds her, he’s going to try to overthrow Celestia by breaking the seal between Equestria and the Wabe—or Tartarus, I guess, whatever you want to call it.” She stared at the Portal with disbelief. “When did that happen? This thing can peek through space and time… I must have been meant to see that.” She rolled her eyes at the idea of it all, but swallowed her pride nonetheless and lifted her hoof to its surface. “What else do I need to see? I’m… very curious.” Waving her foreleg brought up yet another mirror in what seemed to be a dimly lit, cobweb-covered cellar. Twilight pressed her face against the Portal for a better view, frowning at its emptiness. Once again she raised her hoof as if to change the hole, but stopped when her ears pricked at the sound of muffled hoofsteps on the other side. To her absolute shock, an extremely familiar, bright blue pegasus trotted into view. The tips of her prismatic mane and tail were singed and she wobbled under the dead weight of the yellow pony draped over her back. Was that… Daring Do? “Rainbow!” Twilight shouted, pressing the flats of her hooves against the Portal. “Rainbow Dash!” The weary pegasus snapped to full alert, looking every which way in the dark room. “Twilight?” “Rainbow, I’m over here! In the mirror!” Rainbow Dash froze, turning her head slowly to the suggested object. Her ruby irises shrunk to pinprick dots inside her eyes. “T-T-Twilight?” She set the unconscious Daring on the ground and galloped to the mirror. “Twilight, how are you doing that?” “Never mind me, where in the world are you?” Rainbow’s head tilted. “Huh?” “Where are you!?” “Uhhh… Haissan! I’m in some kinda… I dunno, basement thing… connected to a big old chute that hid a flying carpet…” “What?” “Psh, it doesn’t matter! What are you doing here?” “I’m not there. I’m in the Wabe, but I can explain all that later.” A pulse of pain in Twilight brain made her add, “Well… I’ll try, anyway. Where’s Ditzy?” “She made it out a different way,” Rainbow explained. “I’m gonna go find her right now.” “Yes, okay, that’s great! Before you go, there’s something really important I need to tell you about the Sultan Alula!” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “What, that he’s evil?” A bewildered expression straightened Twilight’s face. “How did you—” “He locked us in a big creepy cave that nearly blew us to smithereens.” “Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” “She’s not,” Rainbow said, jabbing a hoof in Daring’s direction, “but yeah, I’m fine.” “Oh, Rainbow,” Twilight said with concern in every feature, “I hate to tell you, but I’m afraid it gets even worse. He’s planning on unleashing the creatures of Tartarus back into Equestria!” “What!?” Rainbow shouted, leaping into the air and hovering there on singed wings. “Why?” “To overthrow Celestia,” Twilight answered. “I saw him through this same portal. The conversation must have happened some time ago.” She winced. “Wait… when is this happening? When are you?” “When am I?” Rainbow repeated. “What the heck is that supposed to mean?” “How long ago did you leave Ponyville?” “I dunno, like… three or four days ago?” Twilight sighed. “Oh, good. That’s lucky.” “What are you talking about?” “I’m sorry, Dash, but I don’t think we have much time. Pinkie’s hurt, and apparently so is Daring. Go find Ditzy as fast as you can and let her know that Alula is planning to take over Equestria, but not until he finds his daughter, who I think must be Dinky.” Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, it is. Don’t tell anypony though, okay? She’s really embarrassed by it.” Twilight scoffed. “Who am I going to tell? The Bandersnatch?” “The what now?” “Never mind,” Twilight said, waving her hoof. “Go, now! I’ll… I’ll see you back in Ponyville!” She offered a small smile. “Sooner than later!” Rainbow let out a strangled chuckle and zipped back to Daring, lifting the injured pony over her flanks. “We sure will. I’m glad you’re okay, Twi. Daring said you’ve been missing.” With a snort, Twilight said, “More than she’ll ever know. Good luck, Dash!” “Uh… you, too, I guess.” With that, Rainbow flipped her mane out of her eyes and took off up a flight of stone stairs Twilight hadn’t noticed along the wall of the cellar. “Sooner than later,” she mumbled again, stepping back to check on Pinkie Pie. The pony’s breathing had slowed, too much for Twilight’s comfort. “Oh, no… it’s okay, Pinkie Pie, we’ll get you back to normal. I promise!” The Bandersnatch roared from without his barrier. Turning back to the Portal, Twilight glared into its wide-set eyes. “Oh, shut up, you!” she snapped, flicking through mirrors in search of modern Ponyville.