//------------------------------//
// Zero-Nine 
// Story: Observations and Preservations 
// by Tolerance 
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These last few days of tedium would have been the death of Twilight had it not been for the constant distraction provided by the other inhabitants of the island. She exchanged stories with Dusk Shine and the alternate Trixie. Constantly comparing their differing or similar experiences proved to be quite entertaining. 

Dusk Shine's world was eerily similar to Twilight's own with the exception that almost everypony's alternate was of the opposite gender. The alternate Trixie's world had many distinct differences. Besides the fact that Trixie's role in life was almost a mirror her own, it turns out that Princess Luna had never been banished. The princess had never turned into Night Mare Moon. Twilight had originally suspected that, in Trixie's world, Princess Celestia had, instead, taken the place of Luna, their roles reversed as much as Trixie’s role and her own were. The other mare informed her that this was not the case at all. Nothing along the lines of resentful sibling attempting to overthrow the other had ever taken place on her world.

When Twilight asked if they knew anything about Discord's world, they explained their belief that, in his world, Discord bore the Element of Harmony. Whoever their alternates were supposed to be on his world must not have managed to defeated Discord when he rose to power. While Twilight thought that hard to believe while looking at his sleeping form curled up in his basket, it was the only explanation for his presence here that made sense. 

Starswirl also shared a little bit of the information that he'd managed to obtain in his time in the Void. He even showed Twilight the journal that his alternate had left on the island. While it never mentioned anything about the disappearance of whole worlds, it did have some insights on why his original theories about alternate universes was flawed. For one thing, every single decision made was not what split the universes apart, but rather, the worlds differed only due to seemingly random variables instead. Why this was, and how it would allow for different worlds to have entirely different flora and fauna, the original Starswirl could only guess. Twilight's Starswirl added that the seemingly random branching of worlds might not be random at all, and may be influenced by some entity on the central hub, which for some unknown reason the journal had labeled as 'The Focus.' 

After some time had passed, and after she had checked to see that they were actually getting closer to their objective for the hundredth time, Twilight had noticed that nopony present had eaten or slept since her arrival. She expected not needing any of that while under the influence of her spell, and she even expected to be quite famished upon her return, but when she noticed the same behavior from the others, Twilight voiced her concern.

"As astute as ever, Ms. Twilight." Starswirl answered. "When I initially arrived here, I was so engrossed in my other self's research that I'd forgotten to eat or sleep for some time. It was a little disconcerting at first, the mind calls for sleep and the stomach still hungers after all, but if one ignores those impulses then they stop after a time. As to the reason for this, I haven't a clue. All I do know is that I've yet to suffer from any of the normal conditions involved with lack of food or sleep."

"That doesn't make any sense at all!" 

"I know it doesn't, Neither does the fact that even the simple spells that we can use require tremendous amounts of effort to cast. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I had wished for the ability to perform my studies throughout the night. To think of all the I might have been able to accomplish with so much extra time on my hooves, and now I'm stuck here with the magical capabilities to match a first year student at my old academy."

After Starswirl's rant, a long silence ensued. "I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that you are all stuck here while I'm free to return to my world at any time." Twilight apologized. "I promise to try to find way to free you all once I've found a way to stop whatever is causing these disappearances."

"There no reason for you to apologize, Twilight. I just got a little carried away, and as sure as I am that we'd all be thankful for freedom, you should probably just concern yourself with saving the universe first. Having said that, I think that we've just arrived at our desti-"

Just then, their island bumped into the Focus, nearly knocking Twilight off of her perch. "You were saying?" Twilight asked as she regained her footing. It was only then that she realized that something had happened to the inhabitants within the shield. They were frozen in place. In addition to that, they were all almost as transparent as Twilight was when she first cast her spell. "Starswirl? Hello..." She called out waving her forelegs about in a futile attempt at getting his attention.

Soon she realized that their condition was worsening as they started to become more transparent by the minute. It was all she could do to keep herself from jumping through the bubble and trying to help, but for all she knew that would have put her in the same position as the others. All she could do was watch as her new friends faded into thin air.

"No! Don't go! I promised that I would save you! Just hold on." 

Twilight attempted to jump the remaining distance from her peninsula onto the nearby platform, but the distance was too great. In her desperation she did the only thing she could think of and cast a quick Teleportation spell on herself. Starswirl's warning about spell use in the void proved true, and the short jump she had attempted ended up violently throwing her into one of the many support structures that made up the external frame of the Focus.

Twilight was sure she had broken something before she remembered that she wasn't really there. Getting back up and ignoring her imagined pain, she rushed off into the depths of the The Focus...